COHERENCE OF WAVE IMPACT INDUCED PRESSURES ON A VERTICAL SEAWALL

Short in duration and high in magnitude pressure pulses are induced by waves impacting on vertical structures like seawalls. Previously, seminal research projects like PROVERBS and VOWS have highlighted the importance of such impulsive pressures in the design of coastal defenses. Nowadays, the distribution, and in particular the vertical distribution, of impact induced pressures at the face of steep-fronted structures is very well understood and documented in small- and large-scale experiments and in field measurements see for example [1 to 3]. Nevertheless, very little is still known about the spatial and temporal coherence of pressures imparted by waves breaking on a seawall. In the present work, the experimental results of [4] and [5] are revisited with the emphasis placed on the evolution over time and the shape of pressure fields developed at the face of a vertical structure.